If I’ve lived this long without a credit card and still have bad credit, would it make any sense to work towards fixing my credit just to get one now? I am in the best financial place I’ve been all my life due to my income and my children each being productive working adults. Can I get some opinions about this because of all my friends and family I’m the only one to never have had a credit card.
It depends. Are you going to need better credit? Do you plan on financing a car or buying a home? A lot of people feel like they need stellar credit even when they aren’t going to use it for anything.
If you are planning on financing something like this, remember that it’s going to take a minimum of about a year before you start seeing significant improvement to your credit score.
Depending on how bad your credit is, you may only qualify for a secured card, meaning you need to put down a deposit and your credit limit will be the amount of your deposit.
I guess the bottom line is if you feel like you need to have a good credit score, then get one. If you have lived your life this long with less-than-stellar credit and don’t plan on financing anything in the future, then I wouldn’t.
Just my opinion.
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I would work to improve it to a decent score, doesn’t need to be stellar. So many things depend on your credit- even renting an apartment. Start with a secured card and work your way from there. You can even get ‘credit builder’ loans- we have them from the local credit union. you take a loan out for about 1000$, open an account and deposit it right in there. Then pay the loan back from that account. (Don’t use the money for anything else other than repaying that loan.) The on time payments help build your credit.
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Thank you all, I plan to start using these tips immediately. I would also accept any more insight because my primary goal is to improve my credit rating.
You did something to get this bad credit. Somewhere you had credit and failed to pay it off or were consistently late paying. How else would you be reported to the credit agencies? You must change your behavior to build your credit worthiness.
My wife who uses her maiden name has never had a store account, taken out a load, or had a credit card. Absolutely nothing to build credit but has a credit score north of 750. Makes me think you are not telling the whole story.
A credit union asked me for three pieces of information to open an account, I fax the paperwork ,was told they couldn’t find it so I uploaded it they told me they could only read two items so I mailed it to Nebraska. I actually faxed black and white then color.I hope it turns out ok. These unions have great opportunities.
Get an unsecured credit card from premiere Bank. Start your credit there. Remember apr is after you fail to make a full monthly payment
Yes I did read your statement and you said you have bad credit. Why do you want to stay in that lane. Clean up your credit and feel great about your financial future. You may want to get a different job or your current employment may offer you a promotion. Would you want them to deny you that opportunity if they ran a credit report? Get the app Credit Karma then look at your report if some are negative over 9 years then have them removed. I did the work and turned mine around to 760 credit score in 3 years. NO STRESSING
I agree mostly with the above (not the scolding post). Please follow Clark Howard’s advice at www.clark.com. He advises the merit of having just 1 credit card and how to get one. You may not need financing now, but most likely down the road…
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I have a mixture of different credit like they say, 35,30,15,10,10. I just pay on time and look forward to a better future.l truly believe being responsible pays off.
how do you have bad credit then? a single little credit card is not going to get you 800 credit score.
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